


Exceptional

by lhknox



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 02:57:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14487315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lhknox/pseuds/lhknox
Summary: "Letting you walk away was the biggest mistake I ever made."based on the tumblr prompt from otpdisaster: "Knowing they’re undoubtedly about to die within the next few seconds, likely from the gaping wound they’re bleeding out from, they make a call. Instead of calling for help, they phone their love and carry on a casual conversation as if nothing is wrong, making sure to mention how much they love them before their time runs out."





	Exceptional

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd

She almost doesn’t answer.

 

She’s just walked in the front door and she’s looking forward to a long shower and some trashy television, but then her phone rings. She pulls it from her pocket and fumbles for a moment when she sees ALEX come up on the screen.

 

She knows she shouldn’t answer. She’s spent way too long trying to get over Alex, months of tears and drunken hookups and self help blogs. She shouldn’t answer. And yet. 

 

“Hello?” she says, putting the phone to her ear and sinking into the couch.

 

“Maggie, h-hey.” Her voice sounds weird, but Maggie can’t quite put her finger on it. “It’s Alex.”

 

“I know, I still have your number in my phone.” Not to mention, there’s no way Maggie would ever forget Alex Danvers’ voice. “What’s up?”

 

“I just...  wanted to say hi.”

 

“Hi?”

 

“It’s been a while since we last spoke. How have you been?”

 

Heartbroken. Sad. Angry. “Not too bad, Danvers. How are you?”

 

Alex huffs on the other end of the line. “Oh, you know, just working hard. Keeping busy.”

 

“So, is there any particular reason you called?”

 

“I really just… I wanted to say hi. It was hard quitting you cold turkey.”

 

“Tell me about it,” Maggie says. “But anyway, how’s the DEO going? How’s J’onn and Winn and your sister?”

 

“Everyone’s good. It’s nice going to work with your friends and feeling like you’re making a difference, y’know?”

 

“Agreed. I sort of miss the NCPD. Gotham’s got more of a vigilante problem than an alien one.”

 

“So you’re in Gotham,” Alex says on the other end of the phone. Maggie still can’t quite figure out what’s wrong with her voice. She sounds like she’s out of breath.  _ Maybe she’s exercising? _

 

“Don’t pretend like you haven’t been facebook stalking me,” Maggie teases.

 

Alex laughs. “Okay, I knew where you were. But are you okay being back in Gotham? I mean, you left for a reason last time.”

 

“It’s nice being close to my aunt again. I hadn’t realised how much I missed her back in National City.”

 

“Tell her I say hi, will you?”

 

“I will not be doing that.”

 

“Ah, come on, why not?”

 

“She’s not your biggest fan.”

 

“Are you kidding? She loved me!”

 

“Yeah, well, you’re just lucky I didn’t inherit the Sawyer Grudge gene. She’s not gonna forgive you quite as easily.”

 

Alex goes quiet for a moment. For a minute, Maggie thinks she’s hung up.

 

“Alex? You there?”

 

She hears a breath hitch. “I… I really hurt you, didn’t I?”

 

“We… it was mutual in the end, remember?”

 

“But it was me, I started it.”

 

“Maybe so, but we both ended it.”

 

She hears Alex’s voice go funny again, and she thinks maybe she’s crying.

 

“Can I tell you something?” Alex whispers.

 

_ Not if it’s going to break my heart.  _ “Of course.” 

 

“You’re the only thing I ever needed.”

 

“Alex.” 

 

“Letting you walk away was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”

 

“This isn’t fair,” Maggie whispers. “I got over you. I’ve been moving on.” She feels her eyes well with tears, she feels them leave hot watery tracks on her cheeks.

 

“I’m sorry,” Alex whispers in reply, “I’m so sorry about everything. I love y-”

 

There’s a crash on the other end of the phone, and Maggie pulls the phone from her ear.

 

“Alex? Alex, where are you?” Maggie calls into the phone, but there’s no reply.

 

“Alex!” She hears Kara’s voice on the other end of the line. “Alex, stay with me!”

 

Maggie feels her entire body go numb, she feels all functions shutting down. Alex had been in danger this whole time. And she hadn’t even realised.

 

“Alex? Can you hear me?” Maggie says again. “Alex!”

 

The line goes dead and Maggie’s hands shake as she tries to call Alex back. Before she can click Alex’s name, her Aunt Issy’s name pops up on the screen instead.

 

“Tia, something’s wrong, something’s wrong with Alex.”

 

“I know,” Issy replies, “I was just calling to see if you had seen the news, but I-”

 

“The news? What channel?”

 

“All of them.”

 

Maggie fumbles for the remote and switches on the television. 

 

_ “-- this extraterrestrial attack on National City - the second in a year - has once again left the city in near ruins, with emergency workers and armed forces dispatched around midday. The threat has been neutralised, but further information will be reported on as its released.” _

 

“Oh my god, tia.”

 

“Maggie, it’s going to be okay. I’m on my way over now.”

 

“No, I have to be there.”

 

“It’s not safe, sweetheart.”

 

“But she needs me, she needs me, tia,” Maggie sobs into the phone.

 

“Maggie-”

 

“She still loves me, she just told me. She loves me and I need to go to National City, tia, I need to tell her, she needs to know-”

 

“Sweetie, I can’t hear what you’re saying; you’re talking too fast.”

 

“She needs to know I still love her!” Maggie cries.

 

“Okay. Okay. We’ll work something out. We’ll fly out there as soon as we can, but they’ve closed the airports out there, there’s no way we’ll get there for a few more days. It’ll be okay.” 

 

Maggie hangs up the phone. She loves her aunt more than anything, but there’s no way this is going to be okay. A few days isn’t soon enough. Alex could die at any moment, without knowing how Maggie feels. Alex could be dead at that very moment, for all she knows.

 

Her phone buzzes, and she reads the message from her ex, Kate.

 

**_KANE:_ ** _ heard about NC. r u ok? _

 

Realisation hits Maggie; Kate Kane is rich as hell and she owes Maggie a favour.

 

**_SAWYER:_ ** _ I’m gonna need that favour now, K. _

 

\---

 

Kate lets her take one of her private planes. 

 

Maggie texts Issy and tells her everything’s fine and packs a bag as quickly as humanly possible.

 

With the Wayne Technologies plane, the usually almost-six-hour flight lands just three hours after it took off. And she almost cries when she sees that Kate’s organized a driver for the other side.

 

They drive through the ruins of National City and deja vu creeps up on Maggie, feeding her memories of Alex asking her to marry her as they stood before the rubble of the city. Maggie feels helpless, she feels restless and shaky. She asks the driver to step on it.

 

She’s out of the car and heading to the DEO before her driver even stops. She pushes past the security guards who recognise her and know better than to mess with her right now. She makes her way through the building, and it’s as though she’d never left. It’s in disarray, and she’s grateful, because nobody pays her any attention.

 

The infirmary is overcrowded and loud, but Maggie finds Alex’s room with ease. She peers in, through the glass walls, and sees her lying in bed, subdued and unmoving. For the second time that day, she cries for Alex Danvers. 

 

She’s rooted to the spot, unable to look away, but she feels somebody’s presence next to her.

 

“I barely got her here in time,” Kara says, her voice breaking. “It’s still touch and go.”

 

“She called me. She thought she was dying and she called me,” Maggie says in disbelief.

 

Kara rests a hand on Maggie’s shoulder. “She’s gonna make it. She has to make it.”

 

Maggie doesn’t respond. She needs it to be true, but she doesn’t quite believe it. Not yet.

 

She spends three days wandering the DEO halls. The chair by Alex’s bedside is constantly occupied, whether by Kara or Eliza or Jonn. She feels like a stranger in their lives again, she feels alone. 

 

_ You shouldn’t have come here,  _ she tells herself.  _ She called you in a panic, she doesn’t really still love you. _

 

She tries to convince herself that Alex’s last words to her weren’t true, that she had been scared and alone and couldn’t get through to anybody else.

 

Alex wakes up three days, seven hours and forty-two minutes after Maggie first arrived. She stays in the hallway, amongst the other workers, away from Alex’s family and friends who embrace her with tears of joy and too-tight-hugs. 

 

And then, she spots Maggie. Their eyes meet through the glass, and Maggie feels her breath hitch, she feels the hair on her arms stand straight. She feels a hurricane build in the bottom of her being, and stir within her. Looking into Alex’s eyes, time slows and everything else melts away, leaving nothing but the two of them under each other’s spell. 

 

Alex’s family files out of the room, and Maggie wanders in amid their smiles and nods of hello and Maggie feels as though she’s floating on air as she approaches Alex’s bedside.

 

“Hey, Danvers,” she says softly. “It’s been a hot minute.” She takes Alex’s hand in her own.

 

“I’m sorry for calling like I did.”

 

“Don’t apologise, don’t you dare.”

 

“I should, and I am.”

 

“Why didn’t you call for help?”

 

“Kara… there were other people she needed to help. And I thought I was too far gone. And I just… the only thing I knew wa that I had to hear your voice one more time. I had to tell you I loved you just once more.”

 

“Always the hero,” Maggie says with a watery laugh. “You really scared me. I thought you had died without hearing me say that I love you, too.”

 

“You do?” Alex says in a small voice that makes Maggie want to cry even more.

 

“You are exceptional, Alex Danvers, and I have loved you ever since you first stole my crime scene.”

 

“I love you, too, Maggie.”

 

She leans down and kisses Alex, softly and slowly and with as much love as she can muster.

 

And she knows that she’ll never love another person the way she loves Alex Danvers.

**Author's Note:**

> as always find me on tumblr at murdershegoat


End file.
